The Olympic Games and the welfare state
Imagine a midnight flit from the Balkans to southern Russia, for the sake of a lucrative job on an Olympic building site that never pays anything at all. Unpaid wages, … Continue reading
February 19, 2014 · Leave a comment
From Sevastopol (1854) to Sochi (2014): is Russia civilized yet?
Sochi and Sevastopol are separated by a sweep of the Black Sea coast. Sevastopol, on the diamond-shaped peninsula of Crimea, is part of today’s Ukraine, but was Russian or Soviet … Continue reading
February 12, 2014 · Leave a comment
Russian history in the year of Sochi
History and sport are set to collide in Sochi, thanks to Russia’s controversial staging of the Winter Olympics. For all the talk of ‘Putin’s Games’, many of the controversies are … Continue reading
February 7, 2014 · Leave a comment
